


Just to hear you speak

by Orison



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Emotional Baggage, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:07:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23633590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orison/pseuds/Orison
Summary: Missing scenes from 10x02. Steve finds a bomb in his garage, but how and when does he tell Danny?
Comments: 6
Kudos: 65





	Just to hear you speak

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I can’t write about the finale yet. It left me with a sour taste in my mouth and I wouldn’t know where to start describing how the characters move on from there. If that was a happy ending then I don’t know what I’ve watched for the last ten years, so I went back to the beginning of the season and chose a scene from one of the early episodes. Maybe I'll eventually shake the muse out of her trance...

***

_“This is Commander McGarrett of Five-0. I need a bomb squad at my house right now. You heard correctly, the bomb squad. Right now. Right now.”_

Steve pushed the ‘end call’ button and stared at the device, letting out a shaky breath. 

Someone had planted a bomb in his garage.

He was sure of it, had trusted Eddie with no questions asked. 

No hesitation.

The dog had been with the Marine Unit in Afghanistan, they’d trained him to locate explosives, and his own history over the last ten years only validated the thought of an enemy out for revenge. 

“Eddie, stand down. Come here, buddy,” he called.

When the animal complied and trotted over to him, Steve patted his head in a tender gesture. “Good job, good job…” he said, leaning forward to scratch behind the dog’s ears. Eddie let out a complacent bark and sat obediently at his master’s feet. “Let’s be careful, alright?”

It wasn’t his first bomb, so he knew exactly what to do.

And yet he found himself inching closer. 

“Stay there, buddy, don’t move,” he heard himself say as he reached the garage door and took hold of the knob, twisting it slowly. The bolt slipped out of its slot with a soft click and he held his breath, waiting.

When a few seconds passed and his limbs remained intact, he exhaled loudly and peered inside.

At first glance, it looked like nothing had been disturbed. 

Wherever the bomb was, it had been astutely hidden from view.

Part of him wanted to get inside and start looking. His old self probably would’ve done that without a second thought. Instead he turned around and headed back into the kitchen. 

There was no way of knowing when the bomb was set to explode. It could be five seconds, five minutes or five hours. He wasn’t about to risk his life just to be impatient. 

Danny would be proud, he reasoned. After a decade, the man’s wariness had finally rubbed off on him. 

After a quick sweep of the house that revealed no sign of intruders, he ended up on his front yard. It was the best place to be, out in the open. 

Just in case…

He stood on the grass, looking around, debating what to do. 

It would be at least ten minutes until the bomb squad showed up, and he wasn’t the kind of guy who just sat down and let the events unfold. 

Eddie, who had obediently trailed along, barked as if he had read his mind, advising him to stay put. Then he curled up at his feet, tongue out, panting happily. Steve smiled down at him. He couldn’t be more grateful for his four-legged friend. Not because he had just saved his life, but for healing him in more ways that he would ever be able to count. 

Trying to get his mind off the situation, he reached inside his shorts’ pocket for his cell phone, his fingers automatically searching for the number of the one person he knew would ground him as he waited.

“Hey, Danny…” he said softly as his partner answered the call.

“Hey. We got a case?”

Steve hesitated for a fraction of a second. “Uhm… no, no case.”

“Good. That’s good. Because Charlie’s in a mood today so I’m gonna be late.”

Danny had agreed to cook him dinner, as long as Steve shared the details of his date the night before.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. He, uh… he claims his stomach hurts and wants to skip soccer practice, but I have been there, and I have used the same trick before. In fact, I know every trick in the book, so I know he’s lying.”

Steve grinned, listening as Danny went on and on about the details of his afternoon with his son. For a few moments, he forgot there was an actual chance that he could blow up along with his parents’ house, his only focus the sound of his partner's voice. 

“Sounds like you’ve got your hands full there, buddy. Maybe we should reschedule.”

“No, no,” Danny immediately replied. “No need to. I am going to talk to him, have him see the futility of this behavior, and then I’ll come over.”

“No!” Steve’s exclamation came out more like a desperate plea.

It was met with a few, excruciatingly long moments of silence.

When Danny spoke again his tone was suspicious, already on alert. “What you mean no?”

Steve backtracked, tried to sound casual. “I mean, take— take all the time you need. To, uh, make sure Charlie’s okay. I’ll call you if anything comes up, alright?”

“Are you alright? You sound weird. And with that I mean weirder than usual.” 

“Yeah, just… no need to rush here. Eddie and I are fine.”

Danny frowned at the comment that had unintentionally slipped past his lips. Steve knew it even if he couldn’t see him. 

“I mean it, Danny. Tell Charlie I love him. I’ll call you later.”

“Okay.”

***

Thirty minutes later, Steve was nervously pacing the backyard, waiting for the techs to identify and defuse the device. Between the bomb squad personnel and the HPD officers that had responded to his call, there were over a dozen people crowding the house.

He looked at his watch again, realizing with dismay that only a few minutes had passed since the last time he’d checked. His tension was building at the thought of this new violation of his space. Too many intruders had tarnished what was supposed to be his inner sanctum, his refuge from the outside world, and every time the realization hit him with the intensity of a punch to the gut.

Would he ever get a break from betrayals and drama?

A chance to be just a man? 

Two of the officers approached him, asking him how long he’d been out of the house and if he had any suspects in mind. Steve shook his head. Enemies? The list was so long he didn’t know where to start. He answered their questions mechanically, sharing a few details, and informed them that he was on the case and that Five-0 would handle it. They nodded, almost in reverence, and walked away.

He stared at the ocean, at the picture-perfect view that had always soothed his soul, and discovered that this time, it wasn’t enough. He needed something more, a reassurance that despite this last occurrence, everything would be alright. 

It was time to alert the team, a voice in the back of his mind reminded him. Danny and the rest of his friends were just a phone call away, ready to drop everything at his first word of distress. He knew that, and had almost accepted it was okay to ask for help, but there was another voice whispering that maybe it was too soon, that he didn’t have enough clues to worry seven more people instead of just one. That he’d call them as soon as the bomb squad finished their job.

In the end, that second voice almost won, and Steve picked up his cell phone to dial his best friend’s number again.

“So, how’d it go?” he asked, his mood immediately lifting. Hearing Danny was exactly what he needed to keep himself from falling apart.

“What?” 

“The ‘talk’ with Charlie. You making him see the futility of his behavior.” He smiled as he said that, unable to hide the amusement in his tone. He would have paid good money to see that.

Danny chuckled. “He, uh... he failed to see it. But I made a deal with him, and told him that I’d take him to practice anyway, and if he still felt sick we would leave early. Turns out he was scared of not making first team. Two goals later, he’s the happiest kid on the planet.”

Steve’s gaze landed on one of the techs scurrying inside the house with a piece of equipment. Two more were standing on the deck, relaying information to a third one on the radio. He’d give anything to go back in time, back when he was Charlie’s age and his life was boring and ordinary.

“I’m happy it all worked out,” he said with genuine affection. Danny’s kids had wormed their way into his heart, and the thought of either of them not always being 100% healthy and happy hurt him just as much as it hurt their father.

“What’s going on over there? I hear voices.”

He took a few steps away from the officers. “Nothing, it’s... nothing, Danny. Something’s wrong in the garage, I’m having it fixed.”

“You want me to come over?” Danny offered. “Crisis is averted, I can help. We can have dinner when they’re done.”

The words _‘Not Safe’_ flashed through his brain in bright, bold letters. “No, it’s alright, I got... I got everything under control.”

On the other end of the line, Danny cleared his throat. “Okay, let me ask you something here. Are you cutting me out?”

“What?”

“Earlier, you said you’d keep me on radio silence because of what happened with Brooke. Is that what this is? You shutting me out?”

Steve winced, feeling a stab of pain in his chest. “No, Danny, this is... it’s far from that.” Sure, he’d said that, but it was stupid talk. This was life-or-death serious. He took the phone away from his ear and squeezed his eyes shut, feeling the familiar throb of a tension headache slowly begin to develop in the back of his skull. 

As he struggled to figure out what to say, one of the bomb techs approached him, ready to update him on their progress. Steve sighed at the bad timing. It felt like he was proving his friend right, and that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

“Look, I gotta go,” he apologized. “But I promise it’s not that. I’ll explain later.”

***

The third phone call happened right after he heard from Tani.

Lou was standing next to him, briefing Duke about the situation at the house. Behind them, the bomb techs were gathering their equipment and getting ready to leave.

“Danny, listen,” Steve said in a firm, serious tone. “The Kapahulu Tunnel collapsed. Tani and Junior are already on the scene. I need you to meet me there, alright?”

“Are they okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, they were nearby when it happened, went there to help.”

“Alright, I’ll… I can still swing by the house and pick you up,” Danny offered.

“No, I’m…” Steve looked around as if searching for answers. “Lou and I are dealing with something, but I’ll be on my way soon.” 

Once again, the line went silent, and he knew that Danny had picked up on his lies. 

“You’re sounding more and more suspicious and I don’t like that,” his partner replied in a tight, controlled voice as if he was restraining himself from starting one of his usual tirades. “but I will meet you at the scene and we’ll talk about this later.”

“Thanks, Danny. See you there.”

***

The tunnel entrance was crowded with rescue vehicles and emergency personnel. Dark clouds of thick dust occasionally came out of the rubble as they worked, rushing to clear it. Nine people still alive, two of them friends, trapped inside an unstable passageway through a mountain sealed on both ends.

Danny felt the urgency permeating the air and quickened his pace, eager to share what he’d learned. 

“...Yeah, they said they’d call once they finish their investigation. Alright, man, thank you, I appreciate it.”

He didn’t mean to eavesdrop but coming back after reaching out to HFD and HTA he couldn’t help hearing Steve’s words and knowing his partner, it didn’t take long to realize that the investigation he was referring to was _not_ the one they were currently working on. 

Steve was sporting his aneurysm face, which at first glance could be justified by the worry over their teammates’ fate. Danny knew better, and the words he’d just heard didn’t sit well with him, especially if he tied them to the weird phone calls he had received.

If he’d found his friend’s behavior odd earlier, he was now positive there was something going on that the man had gone to great lengths to keep from him. 

Always careful not to sneak up on a former SEAL, he cleared his throat to alert him of his presence and waited for him to turn around before nonchalantly asking him about the call. “Who was that?”

Steve almost jumped anyway, surprised that he’d heard him. “That was, uh... Lou. He wanted to give me an update.”

“On? Anything we should know about?” he said, making a sweeping gesture to include Adam who was still on the phone a few feet away.

“It has nothing to do with this case.”

Danny placed both hands on his hips. “But it has everything to do with why you’ve been acting so mysterious all day. What the hell’s going on, Steve?”

Steve’s shoulders sagged. This wasn’t how he wanted to tell him, but there was no point in lying to him now. “When I came back to the house after meeting with you guys,” he started, shifting his gaze away from his friend, “I found Eddie by the kitchen door. He was barking, trying to get my attention.”

“So?”

“So I let him out, and he headed to the garage door. Sat right outside, wouldn’t stop barking.”

A sense of dread started to creep down Danny’s spine, his stomach suddenly feeling like it was full of lead. 

“We found a bomb inside my dad’s champ box.” 

The blond’s eyes widened. “You found a _bomb_ in your house?” He blinked, mouth half open, trying to process the words he’d just heard and the meaning behind them. “An actual ticking bomb?”

“Eddie found it.”

“That’s not the point!” 

“When the bomb squad came—”

“The bomb squad...” Danny raised his hands in surrender. He started to walk away, stopped, turned around. “Are you serious? Three times, Steve. You called me _three_ times! Didn’t it occur to you to mention this little detail? You let me go on and on about Charlie and soccer when you could’ve literally been blown to pieces as I listened!”

_Yeah,_ Steve thought to himself. _That’s exactly why I called you_.

“You’re being dramatic.”

“I’m not being dramatic!”

He closed the distance between them, reassured his best friend with a firm hand on his shoulder. “I’m fine, Danny. Nothing happened. They disarmed the bomb, nobody got hurt.”

“Nobody got hurt…” Danny repeated in disbelief. He scrubbed at his face, wishing he could erase the last five minutes from his mind. Too close. Yet another too close encounter with death. “When?” 

“What you mean?”

“When was it supposed to explode?” 

Steve lowered his gaze. “Middle of the night.”

Swallowing hard at the news that he might’ve woken up to a dead partner Danny closed his eyes, taking a long, steadying breath. “Is it Cullen?” he asked when he opened them again.

“My money’s on him, yes,” Steve agreed. He moved closer and curled his hand around Danny’s bicep, steering him away from everyone. “Listen, Danny, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, and I promise we will talk about this later, but right now I need you and Adam to check the address in Kaneohe that Quinn sent me.”

It was hard not to crack under the man’s intense stare so Danny caved in, nodding in acceptance but making it clear that he was just dropping the issue for the time being and not forgetting about it.

“Whatever,” he muttered as he walked away.

***

“Listen, I’m going to invite everyone to the house, cook some dogs and some burgers. We could all use some down time after today. …Danny? You there?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Be there at five?”

“Sure.”

“Okay.”

***

“How’s Junior?”

Danny put the two cases of beer he’d bought for the team’s get-together in the fridge and leaned against the kitchen counter.

Steve was busy making a salad, chopping lettuce and tomatoes into a large bowl. It was such an intimate moment, watching the big bad Navy SEAL working on such a mundane task, a glimpse into the real McGarrett that Danny was still grateful to be allowed to witness.

“He’s... he got lucky. Concussion and a stitched hand. He’s on his way home from the hospital with Tani.” He put down the knife and turned around, meeting his friend’s gaze. “They could’ve both died in there...”

“You could’ve died too,” Danny replied matter-of-factly. If Eddie hadn’t been around, if it had just been an ordinary dog with no military training, Steve would’ve gone to bed and never woken up again.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“That why you didn’t want me here?”

Steve ducked his head, a sheepish grin on his face. He braced himself for a repeat of their earlier discussion, but Danny’s expression softened instead.

“You don’t need to protect me all the time.”

_The hell I don’t_.

“It’s my job, Danny. You’re my partner.”

“I am also your friend, and as a friend I trust you to clue me in when something like this happens. I could’ve helped.”

“You did help,” Steve replied solemnly. “Knowing that you were safe helped me to stay focused and do what I needed to do.” 

Danny stilled at his friend’s words, finding he had nothing to reply to that. He’d understood a long time ago that Steve would never change and had tried his best to accept it.

“So, all those times, you just called to make sure I wouldn’t come to the house?”

“Yeah,” Steve admitted. “That, and… I guess I needed to hear your voice.”

Heart warmed, gaze softened, Danny grabbed two beers and pointed to the door. “Come on, let’s go sit outside. I got plenty more to say if you want to listen.”

THE END


End file.
